Last week, I was with my husband in Porto in Portugal. On our last evening, we booked a table at the popular local restaurant – The Artist Bistro. It was definitely the best meal we had whilst in Portugal.

Location:

The Artist Bistro is located inside The Artist Hotel. The hotel is based in a former art school and provides a contemporary and comfortable environment, inspiring and developing the skills of the current students of the Hotel and Tourism school who work there. It is just around a corner from a famous shopping street and commercial area of Rua de Santa Catarina. The metro closest station (Campo de Agosto) is just a few minutes away.

Atmosphere:

The Artist Bistro is inspired by the artistic heritage of the building which has previously hosted an Art School. The decoration of the restaurant is classy and elegant.

All art visible in the restaurant is made up of pieces from previous students of the old school Soares dos Reis.

The dinning experience at The Artist Bistro is designed to socialise with the art one can see, smell, taste and feel. The atmosphere of the restaurant is warm and inviting. We were welcomed by Katia who was attending our table through the night. She was really friendly and professional. Quiet jazz music was playing in the background…

The menu:

Do you like surprises and trying new things? If you are quite open to the new experiences and you like being surprised then you will love The Artist Bistro. The key aim of the Head Chef – Hugo Dias is to surprise his dinners with a unique experience of sampling some great locally sourced food.

You can now be surprised by selecting one of 3 sampling menus:

• Myth 5 experiences
• Musa 7 experiences
• Bistro 9 experiences

What all of these menus have in common is that they change on a daily basis and they offer dinners a combination of unforgettable flavours. At the beginning of the meal, we were asked if we had any allergies and whether there were any ingredients we really didn’t like. Our waitress took notes and explained that every course we’ll  receive will be a surprise-we could only choose what type of main dish we wanted to receive (fish/ meat / vegetarian). The really unique think about this restaurant was that we didn’t know what we will have for any of the courses!

We decided to try a Musa – 7 course dinning experience. Each dish was beautifully presented and made from fresh seasonal foods.

While sipping some crispy white wine, our first course arrived- oysters with some red onions.

We finished them in no time and the waitress brought us some mouth-watering mushroom soup with some olive oil, croutons and chives. It was delicious.

From the next course onward we were surprised with different dish each. We received ‘Samosas de Artist’. We decided to play a game and identify the ingredients of our samosas-a great way of having fun whilst enjoying your meal. My samosa was with goats cheese with pumpkin and my husband received a samosa with a chicken and chorizo filling.

Next, we received some vegetable brioche with some potatoes, carrots, peppers, balsamic vinegar, courgettes which were all baked with egg. It was really enjoyable.

Moving on, I received caramelized scallops with a cauliflower mouse-they were divine.

My husband, on the other hand, got an octopus with a lime foam with breadcrumbs and site salad. It crackled like a sea because of the foam popping up.

Following on from our great seafood dishes, I received some green beans stew based on a traditional Portuguese sausage and bread in a rich tomatoes sauce.

My husband got some pork belly, crackling with balsamic vinegar.

Before our main dishes were served, our waitress brought us some lemon & vodka sorbet to clean the palette. It was really refreshing.

At the begging of our meal I decided to have a fish main and I received some beautifully cooked sea bass paired up with an appetizing vegetable puree.

My husband decided to have a meat main and he received some quail with roasted carrots, potatoes pure in a port sauce with some figs and rosemary. It was the best quail he has ever eaten-extremely tender and cooked to perfection.

If you read my reviews regularly then you will know that a dessert is always my favorite part of any meal. I received a delectable chocolate brownie with large pieces of nuts and some vanilla ice-cream.

To finish off his meal my husband received a pear that was boiled in port and paired up with some raspberry ice-creams.

Overall experience:

We both had an amazing time at The Artist Bistro. As I like surprises and trying new food, I was delighted with the concept of discovery. The restaurant serves delicious food with a twist. In addition to food, the service was great and the restaurant is conveniently located so I would definitely visit it again.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

http://www.shotels.pt/restaurantetheartistbistrot/en/home

Address:

 Rua da Firmeza 49,

4000-099 Porto, Portugal

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

X

Pauline

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was with my husband in Zagreb in Croatia. On our last evening, we booked a table at the popular local restaurant – Vinodol.

Location:

Vinodol Restaurant is located in the city’s center on Nikole Tesle’s street.

 

Atmosphere:

Vinodol Restaurant serves meals that are prepared according to traditional recipes, with a modern approach.  The restaurant has a large inside area that can hold up to 180 guest in addition to a green and spacious outdoor terrace that sits 100.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is warm and inviting. We were welcomed by Lucy who was attending our table through the night. She was really friendly and professional.

The menu:

All guests can choose from A La Carte as well as great daily menus made from selected fresh seasonal foods. They both looked great. We decided to have a glass of Prosecco to start with while considering what we should have.

Starters:

While sipping our Prosecco, we decided to order some asparagus, shrimp and wild mushroom risotto from a daily menu. It was delectable and I wish I could recreate it at home.

Mains:

There was a great choice of mains on the menu. We asked our friendly waitress for a recommendation as we couldn’t decide and agreed to share some lamb prepared on spit from Cres island.

It was really tasty and tender. It also came with a couple of sides and some potatoes.

Desserts:

We were full after having our starters and mains but we still decided to try some desserts: some hazelnut fantasy cake and a creme carmel. They were both delicious but the hazelnut cake was simply amazing! It was definitely the best cake I’ve tried so far this year and you should definitely try it if you visit Vinodol.

Overall experience:

We both had a lovely time Vinodol as the restaurant serves delicious food based on fresh, seasonal ingredients. I loved my hazelnut cake and will definitely reccommend it to anyone with a sweet tooth. The service was really friendly, restaurant is located in a city center and it serves great quality, traditional and Mediterranean food with a modern influence so I would definitely visit it again.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

http://www.vinodol-zg.hr/en/

Address:

Ul. Nikole Tesle 10,

10000 Zagreb, Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

X

Pauline

 

During the last full day of our trip to Zagreb in Croatia, we decided to head to Sofra Green Gold- a traditional Bosnian food restaurant. I have never previously had any opportunity to try Bosnian cuisine. It is known to be often prepared with good quality meat that is one of the key ingredients of some of the most popular Bosnian dishes such as bosanski lonac, ćevapi, begova čorba, burek, and grah so it took no time to convince my husband to accompany me to a lunch at this restaurant.

Location:

Sofra Green Gold restaurant is located in a business district of Zagreb, around 20 minutes’ walk or 5 minutes taxi ride from in the city’s centre.

Atmosphere:

The atmosphere at this traditional Bosnian restaurant is homely and it features lots of traditional features. I really enjoyed its décor and, for a minute, it felt like I was taken to a different country.

We were attended by a few different approachable waiters throughout our lunch.

The menu:

Sofra Green Gold restaurant offers traditional Bosnian specialties served in authentic Bosnian environment.

Starters:

To start with, we tried some Begova čorba. It is the most popular soup in Bosnia– Bey’s soup made of chicken meat, vegetables, cream and okra.

Mains:

For our main we decided to share some meat pie (burek) and Cheese pie (sirnica). They are both traditional pies from Bosnia made of meat and cream cheese. I really liked burek and the meaty filling was amazing.

We then had some ‘Dragon of Bosnia’. This massive platter comes with a selection of meat accompanied by some rice and mashed potatoes. Firstly, I tried the beef steak with dry prunes, peppers, cognac and Worchester.

It was really tasty and I liked the gravy sauce accompanying it. Secondly, I digged into minced meat “čevapi” with beef prosciutto, cheese and vegetables in white cream sauce.

Again, I wasn’t disappointed. All flavours worked perfectly with each other. In addition to our platter, we aldo had some traditional Šopska salad- a season salad based on tomatoes and cucumber with cheese and some cucumber in cream.

Desserts:

For our dessert we had some home-made baklava and Tufahija, which is basically a boiled apple in a sauce served with nutty filling and topped up with some whipped cream. They were both yummy!

Overall experience:

We both enjoyed the food and atmosphere in this Bosnian restaurant. The restaurant is very popular-when we arrived at 12:00 there were just a few other tables taken but in around 30 minutes the restaurant was full of locals and expats so I would advise to book a table in advance.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

https://sofra.hr/

Address:

Radnička cesta 37b

10000 Zagreb, Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

X

Pauline

 

 

Last week, I was with my husband on a short weekend break in Zagreb in Croatia. During our stay in the Croatian capital, we dined in a range of traditional and oriental restaurants.

During the second day of our sightseeing, we booked a table at the popular local restaurant – Lanterna na Dolku.

Location:

Lanterna na Dolku is located in the city’s centre, on one of the oldest streets at the Dolac Market.

Owners pride themselves of sourcing most ingredients from the local market traders called ‘kumice’ to make sure that their all dishes prepared at the restaurant are fresh and use locally sourced ingredients.

Atmosphere:

Lanterna na Dolku has a lot of heritage to it and up to 40 people can be seated inside in an over 300 years old basement. In addition, up to 25 guests can sit on a terrace which overlooks the cathedral. When we arrived, the weather was lovely so we decided to sit outside, enjoy the weather and admire the surroundings.

We were welcomed by one of its founders-Tom. He was extremely professional and made us feel like we known him for ages. His customer service skills were excellent and the smile was constantly present on his face. He made us feel relaxed and joyful even before we started our meal.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is cosy and it has a homely décor. There were nice small flower arrangements on all the tables.

The menu:

The goal of restaurant’s founders was to combine the modern and the traditional in both the interior design and on the plate. The menu at Lanterna na Dolku offers a great selection of authentic Croatian dishes that were inspired by an old cookbook from 1854 that owners found in the Zagreb City Museum.

Starters:

Before we ordered our starters we decided to have a glass of white wine from a traditional Croatian winery.

While sipping our refreshing wine, we decided to share some cheese strudel wrapped in prosciutto which was really tasty.

Mains:

There was a nice choice of mains on Lanterna na Dolku’s menu. For these of you that read my blog regularly, you will probably know that I often choose fish as I love all seafood. I decided to have a sea bass fillet in truffle sauce with fresh truffles accompanied by some homemade croquettes. What can I say? Wow! Wow! Wow! It was simply amazing! I could have that meal every day. The flavours all worked perfectly with each other and it was simply delicious.

My husband decided to have Pil-grill- a chicken fillet with tomatoes, cheese and peas. It was flavoursome and he finished it all in no time.

Desserts:

We asked Tom to recommend 2 desserts to us and he told us that we need to try: Lanterna štrukli and Lanterna mousse which are both restaurant’s signature sweet courses. We listened to his endorsement and decided to share both of these desserts.

Lanterna štrukli in blueberry sauce recently won a prize at the Austrian baking competition and it was mouth-watering.

Lanterna mousse on the other hand was a perfect blend of mousse with cookies and chocolate. They were both delicious.

Overall experience:

We both had a great time in this family run restaurant. Lanterna na Dolku serves delicious traditional food with a modern twist using only the highest quality, locally sourced, fresh ingredients. I absolutely loved my sea bass so if you like sea food then you should look no further and give it a go. The service was excellent, location is superb and the restaurant serves real ‘homely’ dishes so I would recommend it to anyone visiting Zagreb in a heartbeat. Lanterna na Dolku is where you come to if you want to feel at home to have a beautifully presented and flavoursome traditional meal.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

http://www.lanterna-zagreb.com/en/

Address:

Opatovina 31,

10000 Zagreb, Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

X

Pauline

 

As some of you know, I am currently on a weekend break in Zagreb in Croatia. We arrived here on Friday afternoon and decided to have our dinner at the Gostionica Restoran Purger Purger restaurant which is around 15 min walk from the hotel we are staying in.

Location:

Gostionica Restoran Purger is located in the city centre on in Petrinjska Street and just around a corner from the tourist information office and the old town.

Atmosphere:

Now this is what really makes this restaurant, the staff are friendly and the whole place has a family run feel about it. We were surrounded the entire evening by groups of older locals all having a great time a true sign that a restaurant is doing something right.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is cozy and it has a homely décor. There were nice summer flowers and paintings brightening its traditional setting.

The menu:

The menu at The Gostionica Restoran Purger offers a nice selection of traditional dishes that are all built around the family recipes since 1932. Restaurant offers a number of stews, grilled dishes, and traditional desserts.

Starters:

To start, we decided to share some deep-fried cheese. It was served with a bit of homemade tartare and was tasty.

Mains:

There was a nice choice of mains. I decided to have some mixed grill.

The portion was enormous and flavoursome. My husband had a Pork Cutlet Sambour style and also enjoyed it. We ordered some sopska salad to share.

After having 2 massive mains, we decided to skip a dessert.

Overall experience:

We both had a nice time at The Gostionica Restoran Purger. It serves nice, simple food so it would be great to visit if you like to try some real ‘homely’ dishes. This isn’t the place to come to if you want tea spoon sized portions, this is where you come to if you want to feel at home, like a local and have a proper hearty traditional meal.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

http://www.purger.hr/

Address:

Petrinjska ul. 33, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

X

Pauline